Some Simple Ideas to Update our Main Floor

Happy Monday friends! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! With Brady playing in a company hockey tournament (you know you’re Canadian when!), we had a weekend full of fun around here.

Today, I wanted to share a few ideas I’ve had for some simple and fairly inexpensive updates around our main floor. We’ve decided to take on the bigger renovations upstairs, getting our bedrooms and bathrooms all finished up before making our way down to the main floor and then finally, the basement (catch up with our reno plans here). It’s sure to take us a while to work our way through the bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs before we can start on the our main living spaces throughout the main floor, but there’s no reason we can’t get ourselves a little closer to loving these spaces in the mean time. After all, we spend most of our time at home in them! Knowing we’ll be making some pretty major changes to the layout and finishing of much of our main floor, I don’t want to spend too much time or money on things that I know will just be temporary, but I’ve had a few ideas for some easy and relatively inexpensive updates we could make around the main floor to make it all a little more enjoyable to spend time in until we finally do get around to the real deal. While I can’t justify changing out all of the ugly flooring, there are many things I can do! Let me tell you about a few of my ideas…

THE FRONT ENTRY + STAIRCASE

Let’s start here in the entryway. Of all the things in this house, this mix of rock, vinyl, and metal nosing on our stairs might just be the thing I hate the most. We’re planning to replace it all with carpet (including the stairs down to the basement too) – we’ve been looking through samples for a couple of months now and I *think* we’re almost ready to pull the trigger on this one. But, before we have the carpet installed, I need to decide on whether we should paint out the railings and trim. I’d originally planned to keep most of this oak in our entryway, buuuut then I came across this photo and I just can’t shake the idea of painting it all out white now. I think I’d leave the actual railing and our beautiful oak front door, but our entryway doesn’t get much natural light and I really think painting it all out white would help brighten it all up so much. What do you think?

I’m also planning to swap out the lighting throughout our entryway – these sconces are my current front runners for the staircase and I’ve already ordered up this picture light for above the credenza.

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THE STUDY

I’ve chatted about my ideas to update this cozy little study a lot lately – you can catch up with it all here if you missed it. Basically, we’ll be changing out the tile work and carpet and then plan to bring some new furniture into this space.

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THE KITCHEN

I’ve had SO many ideas to update our kitchen! Most of them involve paint, but I’d also love to change out some of the hardware and lighting too. First, I’d love the repaint our pantry and patio doors (I’ve got a new colour already picked out!) and change out the hardware (the new doorknobs are here and they’re even prettier in person!). I’ve also been thinking about painting out the oak shelf beside our pantry (and the built-in cabinets in our living room), but I’m a little more torn about that – it seems a shame to paint over the oak, but it’ll all be coming out eventually and I really think a bit of paint might make all the difference to how much we enjoy them in the mean time. Speaking of painting the oak, I’m also thinking I’ll likely paint out the window sashes and trim around them in white to match our walls, but again, not totally decided on this either.

While I’ve got my paint brushes out, I’ve been playing around with the idea of painting out our cabinets (and probably updating the hardware while we’re at it). I’m far less sure about this one as I know it would be a lot of work and the cabinets will all be torn out within the next 1-2 years, but I really think it would be the best way for me to try out some coloured cabinets and make sure that I love them as much as I think I will before committing to a more permanent choice through our bigger reno down the road.

Finally, depending on how far we want to take this phase one renovation, I’d really love to remove the backsplash tile and rock from the island and cover it all with some simple beadboard instead. Again, it’s all coming out eventually, but maybe it would be worth that extra work and expense to have the chance to enjoy having it all out for a little while longer? And, if we wanted to get really into it, we could build out a cover for that range hood as well, something that we could paint out to match the cabinets.

Aside from the beadboard and a whole lot of painting, I’ve also put a lot of thought into changing out some of the lighting throughout this space. Swapping out that fan over our table would make such a big difference. Even more, I’d love, love, love to swap out that big oak light box over the island for a couple of pendants, but I’m not sure I want to deal with whatever is underneath, so the jury is still out on that one.

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THE LIVING ROOM

Planning a little less for this space I think. I’d love to paint out the built-in cabinets (I have a dramatic colour in mind for these!) and the window trim in white to match the walls. Also, I’ll probably swap out that light in the corner for something with a little more presence and personality.

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THE HALLWAY + OFFICE

We’ll probably just swap out the lighting and door hardware in here (here’s the new door knobs I’ve ordered up for these doors).

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THE LAUNDRY + MUDROOM

This is another space that I’m not entirely sure how far I want to take things with this first phase renovation as I know they’ll be some bigger changes down the road, though I’m not exactly sure what those changes will be yet. I think for now, I’d like to change out the lights in here (I snagged this beauty for half price) and I’ll probably paint out the bench, doors and trim. I’d really love to add some beadboard 2/3 of the way up the walls, all around this space with a peg rail all around the top, but I’m worried to take things too far as I know we’ll be changing out the baseboards and door trim when eventually get around to replacing the floors and because all that new trim will likely be much wider, I’m worried we won’t be able to match it all up with the beadboard if they’re not all installed together. I might just have to settle for painting out the cabinets in the laundry area instead.

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THE POWDER ROOM

I honestly don’t know how much we can really do in here until we’re ready to lay the hardwood through the rest of our main floor. I’d love to add some sort of wall treatment in here too (and oh how I wish I could rip out that tile backsplash!), but again, I’m worried about trying to match that up to our new trim work when we do the floors. I’m going to keep thinking on it and see if I can come up with any other ideas, but for now, I can replace the mirror (which is waaaay too big for this little space), lighting and hardware at least. Also, we’ve ordered up a new doorknob for this space too (this old one is in such rough shape, I actually locked myself in the bathroom the other day! Luckily Brady was home to help break me out!). I’ll probably add a pretty rug in here too, just to bring some colour and personality into this little space.

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That’s a surprisingly long list! It just goes to show you that there’s a lot a person can do to update a space without having to knock out walls, replace flooring or just generally spend a ton of money replacing all the things. Add a few new light fixtures, mix in a bit of new hardware here and there, and cover the rest in a whole lot of paint and you’ll have yourself a whole new space! What do you think? Is there anything you’re super excited to see? Any other ideas you can add to the mix for me? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Wishing you SUCH a lovely day my friends! 

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